November 7, 2012

"... such as family, comfort, peace, security, art, beauty, freedom and happiness. And all of those things are further imperiled by last night's results."

Says Palladian, expressing something close to what I've been saying around Meadhouse since about 8 p.m. last night: It's time to stop talking about the election and have our lives be about love and beauty.

181 comments:

Ah, in denial, eh? You may not be interested in troubles, but troubles are interested in you. And so is the government. I think hard times are ahead. Love and beauty are nice, but they won't save jobs or move the economy.

Part of being realistic is seeing that you can't control the whole world. I'll vote when the elections come up. I'll monitor politics as part of daily life in this world. But for the most part, we live within our private lives. We have a short life to live and we need to live well.

The poor folks- who were taking a hell of a beating...are now going to suffer much more. The economy, which had stalled...is now being buried in concrete, Israel is on it's own, (hows an Iranian nuke going to help love, though it will provide brief light, then nuclear darkness..) Wonder how love and life are working out for that poor wonk that made the video and was blamed by Obama AND Hillary for the death of our people? Lotta love and life coming his way...IF he ever gets out of jail.

I too loathe politics and bickering partisanship. Unfortunately, politics and policy matters. We have all been given an incredible gift by being born in this country. We owe it to our ancestors and our progeny to continue fighting, distasteful as it is.

That doesn't mean it must consume us, as it tends to do around elections, but we can't stop because it's unpleasant or because we are disappointed.

You don't even know what you're blithering about. "Cultivate your garden," you say, as blithely as if something like that just falls out of the sky without human effort, which -- in case you didn't notice -- is being Hoovered up the state's nostrils like this was an 80's rock-star party backstage.

Most fun time in my life was back when I was in my 20s, dead broke, living in a shithole of an apartment in San Francisco.

Had plenty of time to play music, talk bullshit with friends, walk up and down the hills and over the Golden Gate Bridge, and I found a way somehow to get hold of the 20 bucks to eat out at a nice restaurant every Friday night.

"I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject I do not wish to think, or speak, or write with moderation. No! No! Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch -- and I will be heard. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.

It is pretended that I am retarding the cause of emancipation by the coarseness of my invective and the precipitancy of my measures. The charge is not true. On this question my influence -- humble as it is -- is felt at this moment to a considerable extent, and shall be felt in coming years -- not perniciously, but beneficially -- not as a curse, but as a blessing; and posterity will bear testimony that I was right."

Ann's attitude is a good one for someone in her position/. Her kids are grown-up, her house and student loans are paid for, and she's got a nice job she loves.

The problem is the students who are taking out loans to sit in her class are never going to have the standard of living she has had. There aren't enough jobs for them or for new college grads or for high school grads or for high school drop-outs. Barack Obama didn't create this problem, which is the result of globalization and technology, and Romney wasn't going to solve it. The Boomers like Ann will be fine because they made it to the lifeboats while the younger generations are now standing on the deck of a slowly sinking ship. My problem with Obama and W (and the Congress of the last 12 years) is that they've pissed away our money trying to put a bigger whole in the ship.

Since last night, I've had contact with business owners/contractors (three in CA, the rest in the US) who said they will begin down-sizing or outright closing of some of their operations, even before Christmas. They are worried. People seem to be scrambling. I, for one, will keep my eyes in the sky and keep fighting!!!

BTW, one of them told me about a long line they saw this morning...in front of a gun store.

Snap out of it! Let's take a week off and get ready for 2014. What a bunch of Sunshine Soldiers.

The election was a near thing with the MSM in full thrall to the D's. Every day the MSM's position as the gatekeepers to the 'truth' gets chipped away at by sites like this. It's a fight worth continuing.

It's time to stop talking about the election and have our lives be about love and beauty.

What fucking drivel. And easy to say when you've got a nice fat sinecure to rest on. Those of us at the bottom don't get to have any of that shit. That's all entirely for you well off types. Us poor folks can't afford it.

It surprising to me how low people put their own bar. How little they will settle for, and what compromises they will make to avoid conflict, struggle, and work.

Our people should have much higher ambition. They have short term wants that they will satisfy at the highest possible price, because the packaging of the deal hides the true long term cost. We could do so much better, if we aimed higher, thought bigger and accepted the challenges and demands of our dreams. Most don't even dream any more, they only hide their head and hope, hope someone does something to make it better.

"Shouting Thomas said...You can have love and beauty regardless of income.

Most fun time in my life was back when I was in my 20s, dead broke, living in a shithole of an apartment in San Francisco.

Had plenty of time to play music, talk bullshit with friends, walk up and down the hills and over the Golden Gate Bridge, and I found a way somehow to get hold of the 20 bucks to eat out at a nice restaurant every Friday night.

It was paradise."

Really? Then give it all awayback, and return to paradise.

And then get back to me. Until then, you're as full of shit as Althouse.

@Maverick "'Love and beauty' - in my mind - have always been associated with the liberal 'left', not the mill-owning capital loving 'right', so last nights result should deliver what you say you now want."

Which is just a sign that your brain isn't working right.

Where do you get the money to buy food, pay your bills, buy a guitar, purchase seeds for your garden? If not from the mill owner. Who pays for your education? Roads? The military to keep you safe and alive?

Not you.

Real beauty is in hard work. Not running around Europe, screwing your boyfriend, being a 30 year old eternal college student, and demanding I pay for your sex and to kill your kids.

Real beauty is in owning a mill and making something real. Giving good lives to hundreds of people who will go home and be able to buy presents for their kids. Get an education. Drive a car. Go to a doctor.

All because you run a mill (or coffee shop or Wal-Mart or farm or ...)

The ignorance of progressives always saddens me. Because I can't fix stupid.

If you are young and able to live on the overflowing surplus of an affluent society. Hell, it's possible to live out of dumpsters.

I think troubles are coming, and would come no matter who was elected. The temptation is to hunker down and go it alone or with family, secure in one's helplessness in the face of events. How bad can things get? I don't know, but they can certainly get worse than most here have experienced. And I suspect that many of the concerns that drove the outcome of the election will come to be regarded as frivolous. I certainly have the sense when talking with young people, that they are consumed with concern for frivolous things and have yet to meet the nasty side of life.

Yes, Marshal (and Billy Beck. Palladian, April Apple, et al) Ann is like those Calif "Coasters" living on the sliver of coastline from Sandy Eggo up thru Venice Beach, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Palo Alto Marin County, etc comfortable in the Crows Nest as the engine room which powers the ship (in this case the "Inland Empire" slowly dissolving into 3rd world status) floods. Ann and the others will be comfortable until the end and the last to founder--but the Crows Nest will ultimately go under as well. And when it does, who will be left to send rescue ships? New Zealand? Costa Rico? Canada? Sell the house, by a yacht and cruise the Agean Sea visiting all 1000+ islands or the Caribbean drinking ouzo, rum & Taquila until your liver explodes? Think again. There are real pirates plying the seas now and they aren't shy about taking rich/well-to-do retirees hostage--or even killing them as news reports daily remind us. And with a gutted US Navy, who will protect & police the world's oceans? The Chinese? And how long will you be able to safely enjoy your "private" life as a detached, "private citizen," Ann--especially when it's now open-season on whitey--as the increasing flood of flash-mob beatings attest? Sure, Ann, you're safe and snug up in the Crows Nest--for now...but the Ship of State is slowly foundering--and there isn't a rescue ship on the horizon that will be able to reach you in your lifetime--which may not be as long as you think should you accidently be in the wrong place when a flash-mob hits. And how far will your salary/pension go when utility rates triple or quadruple and the inevitable runaway inflation hits from "quantitative easing as it works its way thru the economy? (i.e. printing money out of thin air.) Or have you checked rising food prices lately? All thanks to worshiping at the false Gods of AGW and resultant ethanol production soaking up 47% of all avail corn?Sure, Ann, go read a good book--you'll be fine--for now...unlike those already financially drowning down in steerage class... sleep tite tonight, your government is awake--just ask Sandy survivors on Staten Island..

When I saw all those people, so many people of color, their own recent heritage linked to slavery cheering to take up another form of bondage, I honestly felt physically ill and could not continue to watch.

I cannot really express how sad I feel. And I don't feel sad for myself either. I'm fine. As I mentioned I'm not long for this world anyway, but, what happened last night was not fine. It is not okay.

I've never hated a president before. I heard people talking about hating Bush but I had no way to relate. Now I know exactly how they felt about Bush. I cannot stand to see or hear Obama. I'm worse than that girl that cried about bronco bama. I see that face and the revulsion is physical. I see his ladyhands and my impulse is break them. I see a sign I want to damage it. A bumpersticker - destroy it. A window sign -- toss a rock through . Someone mention the name -- punch them.

It's been flat cruel having that face presented every hour of every day of every week of every month for five straight years, that was cruel. And now. And now. Well. Comcast will just have to be cancelled innit. Because I am not having that goddamn arrogant face on my set every single day for another goddamn four years, that just izznt going to happen.

I've never felt this degree of hatred before for anybody but now I do. And reading your comments and knowing your reasoning and understanding your motivations for accepting a projected twenty trillion dollars in debt, I must say, I do blame you. I know I control my own feelings, but you did this by accepting twenty trillion dollars in national debt and shifting it onto generations unborn for the cheap exchange of lowgrade healthcare. Like beads for Manhattan you've cheated future generations, little children too naive to know they've been cheated and thinking their healthcare is just grand when it isn't all the while taxing the life out of them. Now I understand your hatred for Bush and it's bleak. I will not recover from this I can see that. I will hate this man and I will hate what happened for the rest of my time. And you will be left with the bill, I am so sorry about that.

I had a librul yesterday ask me to explain why conservatives can be pro-life if they are against abortion but don't oppose the death penalty. IOW, the librul was equating an unborn child to an adult convicted of a heinous crime and sentenced to death. That is how liiogical [and dumb?] the average librul is.

Listen, I like stopping by Althouse, but let's get real. Althouse and Meade are living a high-income, privileged life that many of us can only dream about. It takes a day like today to put all of that into focus. Cultivate your garden?! I've seen the photos of where she and Meade live. C'mon. Many of us would love to live surrounded by all those expensive toys and have the summer off to order a pile of books for the Kindle and take a few leisurely vacations.

The class (and income) issue rarely comes up here. I think it's about time we hashed this out.

As others have pointed out above, Ann's cavalier, gather-ye-rosebuds response is predicated on being financially stable for the rest of her life. She has the good life NOW and will have it till the day she dies (or almost).

Let me repeat, though. I generally enjoy Ann's blog, but today seems like a good time for people to discuss this issue.

This election proved nothing that we didn't already know. It restated the truth that the nation is evenly split when voting on the very complicated basket of issues in a Presidential election. We took a vote and out of every 100 of us, 2 more voted one way than the other. Nearly as many disagree with what we are doing as agree.

That means neither party has a convinced most of us of much of anything. That's an opportunity - that's good news. If you believe you have the right ideas, you have a good chance of having them prevail if the public can be educated, informed, enlightened. As a libertarian, I see that coming one way or the other, so in that way it's encouraging. I just fear for the price we may pay to learn it.

So what to do? Keep telling people what you know, what opportunity looks like, what a mistake looks like. While you are at it, the facts they see in the news will be reinforcing your message. This is not politics so much as human wisdom on how to live free and productive. The absolute best way to teach that is by example. Live with a respect for freedom and tolerance, live responsibly, take care of those in need, and always choose to teach men to fish when possible and resist handing them fish unless absolutely necessary. A village full of free fisherman has no need for war or theft.

I am actually very cheerful this morning. First, we now know we have only four more years of this man and won't have to see him trying to regain the presidency as he would have had he lost. Think of it!! We would have had two years and a few days of respite before he would be in our face again perhaps for as long as six years. So there is that. And it is huge.

Next, many opportunities should arise from the knowledge that much of our population is very dense and easily tricked. Those in sales and in the manufacture of useless products should have a field day in capitalizing on this demonstrable fact.

Finally, we can now say out loud what we all thought which was that Romney was a shitty candidate. How else to explain losing to a loser? We will need to recalibrate before the next election and hopefully find a person willing to disguise his beliefs and be an excellent bullshitter.

When I saw all those people, so many people of color, their own recent heritage linked to slavery cheering to take up another form of bondage, I honestly felt physically ill and could not continue to watch.

Somebody sold them that the way to dignity is getting more stuff from other people.

Somehow dignity always eludes blacks. They're told dignity is just being withheld, and they have to get more from white people.

But dignity comes from doing something for others. Let a bunch of blacks gang together and do something for poor whites, and see what happens.

Chip Ahoy said...I've never felt this degree of hatred before for anybody but now I do. And reading your comments and knowing your reasoning and understanding your motivations for accepting a projected twenty trillion dollars in debt, I must say, I do blame you. I know I control my own feelings, but you did this by accepting twenty trillion dollars in national debt and shifting it onto generations unborn

Where were you when fluff for brains Bush started two wars and enacted tax cuts, none of which were paid for by reductions in other spending?

I lived in SF in my misguided youth, and I was dead broke. Had a hell of a good time! Girls, great 420, playing music with great musicians, walking all around the city, talking BS in the coffee houses...

I lived in NYC in my high life days of my prime with my great wife, money, the apt. in the hot spot, and a country home in Woodstock, playing with the legends of the music world, growing my garden...

It's up to you to find happiness in life, regardless of your circumstances.

And, before you get going on me... I was born in a shotgun shack in the middle of the cornfields in small town Illinois. My mom and dad were poor non-union factory workers.

phx, It's neither liberal nor conservative class envy. It's just an observation that people who speak breezily with high-tone Candide references from a position of guaranteed financial security may find readers who, not in the same position, may raise an eyebrow.

Shouting Thomas, I agree that life shouldn't be ruled by money. But I thought it would interesting to see if others wonder why, for example, Meade doesn't seem to work.

By the way, back in the mid-80s, I worked at Bonanza Inn Bookshop on Market St. in San Francisco. I make around four to five dollars an hour. I used to soak my feet every night after work because I had to stand at the cash register all day. Lots of good times, but clearly I should have been a community organizer.

Ann and I are the same age. You just can't get all worked up and emotional at this point..I've had enough fear and rage for a lifetime. I grew up worried about the atom bomb, then the population bomb. Every election was terribly terribly Important.

phx, As usual you're not getting the obvious. The country being split has nothing to do with people being undecided on a clear choice. This is just simple logic, and your confusion seems to indicate that I have little chance of convincing you of anything important, so you can just scroll past me - it's over your head anyway, but bless your heart.

I worked at Bonanza Inn Bookshop on Market St. in San Francisco. I make around four to five dollars an hour. I used to soak my feet every night after work because I had to stand at the cash register all day. Lots of good times, but clearly I should have been a community organizer.

I used to work at the Sacred Grounds coffee house by the Panhandle. They paid me in lunch and a couple of dollars. Then I got a job as a bicycle messenger. Those hills...

I won't believe that even if the count shows it. Because if that's true there is even less in this country that is good and decent than I thought.

Well Sis, you can either indict a whole nation of being stupid and evil or you can assign blame where it belongs: with the candidate and his campaign.

They spent half of the campaign acting as if he was owed support and votes as if they were his right, as if his nomination were inevitable, and they spent the other half of the campaign without ever making an argument for voting FOR him (they didn't even make an express argument for voting against Obama, leaving it for people to figure that out themselves).

Even when challenged here, again and again, the best that even the most ardent Romney supporter could say about him was "at least he's not Obama" and that's why you should vote for him. As I said each time in response, that is not enough.

Romney pissed this election away. Now he'll go and live comfortably in retirement while the rest of us slubs suffer the consequences.

AReasonableMan said...Chip Ahoy said...I've never felt this degree of hatred before for anybody but now I do. And reading your comments and knowing your reasoning and understanding your motivations for accepting a projected twenty trillion dollars in debt, I must say, I do blame you. I know I control my own feelings, but you did this by accepting twenty trillion dollars in national debt and shifting it onto generations unborn

Where were you when fluff for brains Bush started two wars and enacted tax cuts, none of which were paid for by reductions in other spending?

Happy enough then to run up deficits for things you approved of.

Get your head out of your ass. It isn't 2004 anymore. You can't blame Bush anymore. The end of the line is just up ahead and throttle is tied down and the engineer has already jumped. If we're really and I mean 'really' lucky you might see 3% growth in four or five years.

Ann Althouse said...I don't control politics.

Part of being realistic is seeing that you can't control the whole world. I'll vote when the elections come up. I'll monitor politics as part of daily life in this world. But for the most part, we live within our private lives. We have a short life to live and we need to live well.

Cultivate your garden.

Easy for you to say. First I got to scramble to keep what fiscal manoverability I have left. Work first . Play later.

phx, Oh yeah, I remember where all the bicycle messenger dudes used to congregate a couple blocks down Market St. from where I worked. You were part of the "urban cool" scene. I had a friend worked for a motorcycle messenger service. Hard-drinking fellas (okay, some speed in their veins, too).

The EPA is now clear to issue it's pending new rules and regulations for water quality control of the water I use to cultivate, and for every other body of water, and the allowable temperature of that water so it is safe for fish (real or imagined). There are new rules for the use of fertilizers, standards for farm dust that require documentation and development of remediation plans. My attorney and I can't figure them out, and the consequences of non compliance include substantial civil and criminal penalties. I'm thinking I'll just stop cultivating...

We survived the combined hate of the Democrat's terrorist wing (the KKK) and their serial murders and violence against our work for black suffrage and rights.

We survived the Democrat's shift from slavery and eugenic laws to their selling of slavery and eugenics by propaganda and indoctrination. A Democrat indoctrination so successful that for every African American born, one is voluntarily killed by the mother in the womb.

phx, I lived all over San Francisco, but probably spent most of my time in the Mission. My budget outing was usually a burrito at Pancho Villa on 16th St., Cafe Picaro for coffee, and then maybe a movie at the Roxie Theater.

I don't blame Romney for losing. I thought his campaign was far superior to Obama's. It was classier more issues oriented, less divisive, and far less silly. It was grown up compared to childish. Despite that, the American people still chose (by only 2%) the childish less serious one. That's the American people's fault, not Romney's, and not the GOP. Not even the DNC or Obama is responsible. One party offered CNBC and the other MTV, and the people chose MTV. Is CNBC supposed to start airing "16 & Pregnant"? The American public was given a choice. They chose poorly. That's all there is too it. We need to improve the public's decision making, period. That's doable. We dumbed them down - we can smarten them up, if the future doesn't do it first, cause that's gonna hurt.

Poor Chip obsessed with a single issue at this late stage in life has yet to learn how hate eats the soul. At the core of most morals and religions in the belief that compassion and love should be our inspiration. Of course there can be righteous indignation, but even Romney said prayers for Obama.

"Part of being realistic is seeing that you can't control the whole world. I'll vote when the elections come up. I'll monitor politics as part of daily life in this world. But for the most part, we live within our private lives. We have a short life to live and we need to live well."

I take the point, and I like the sentiment, but at the same time I think this attitude is why conservatives so often seem to show up to a gun fight wielding a butter knife. Aside from the professional conservative political class, most folks who are inherently conservative want to make money, go to the guym and hang out with friends and family. But if we do that, we wake up and find out that our liberal neighbors have just voted away half of the money that we thought was in our wallet, and that government is always growing. I ask you, liberal complete strangers on this blog, how much is enough? What percentage of the GDP should be spent by the Government? Just give me a number, and I will see if I can live with it. But it feels like it's never enough. Medicare and Medicaid inevitably lead to Obamacare. Lawrence leads to Gay Marriage. What's next? Where do we stop? And why do we have to keep fighting this rearguard action against people who don't give a thought to unintended consequences?

Wow, Chip Ahoy, your level of hatred is unhealthy. If you're sucha believer in America's system maybe you should realize one politician can't wreck the country.

Anyway, Republicans should do a lot of soul searching to understand why they're losing so many young people. For one example, when Republicans decided to be the party for those who dislike gay people, well that can only help you for the short term, because you're on the wrong side of history. Stuff like that is a big reason young people find the GOP un-cool. If you were really the party of Lincoln you wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of issues like that.

But you have a "cool" wing in the GOP. It's all those libertarian types who are fine with marijuana being legal, gays having equal rights, etc etc. why don't you get on the right side of some of these issues and be truly a party of freedom.

April: I agree, but the example is interesting in that it puts it in terms that even a Progressive can grasp. Perhaps.

I am quite cheerful today. I am in a money making mood to spite the outcome. The president said it would be sweet revenge to vote against Romney and I say it will be sweet revenge to rake some in before year end, watch what happens to taxes and then decide what next. For a capitalist the certain notion that half the country is dumb as a bag of rocks is an uplifting metric.

Perhaps there is a force in our democracy that is making freedom the highest value and everyone is seeking to extend it to as far as it will go: women equal to men, the people who had been slaves freed, the line between citizens and non-citizens blurred, adults flattering the young lest they be thought tyrannical, etc. That fuse may still be burning.

Plato talked about it (and he was pretty anti-democratic), suggesting in the Republic that it leads to the people becoming so sensitive in their pursuit of freedom that any law is eventually seen as oppressive, and they criticize their rulers as tyrants and oppressors until the rulers actually become so...and then a real tyrant comes around for a while.

Eventually, the tyrant is deposed and a military hierarchy starts the process over again which devolves into oligarchy which devolves into democracy back to tyranny....and on and on.

Plato put forth his idealism (world of forms), and his program of philosopher-kings as the only way out of this situation (convenient for him) and as mentioned, he was exactly not a fan of Athenian democracy, admiring Spartan rule.

But you have a "cool" wing in the GOP. It's all those libertarian types who are fine with marijuana being legal, gays having equal rights, etc etc. why don't you get on the right side of some of these issues and be truly a party of freedom.

Yeah. I'm part of the cool wing!

You say "right side of those issues" but there are people who live in this country (a lot of them) who think that the right side of those issues is the other side. Most of them are reliable voters.

We're called libertarians, but you see what kind of national presence we have (zero).

I really wish I didn't have to care about politics, but I do. I'd really prefer to be left in peace. That's not going to happen.

Agree that it's time to stop talking about the election. Not interested in the post-mortems. Romney was a credible candidate and ran an excellent campaign. It's cheap and easy to say with 20/20 hindsight that he should have been more aggressive on this (Benghazi) or backed off of that (immigration). It was a very close race up to the bitter end. It's not the underlying smaller government/less taxation philosophy that went wrong here.

Bagoh at 10:36 and 11:12 is dead-on balls accurate. Americans chose poorly, very poorly despite a credible Republican candidate. But this was no mandate. We are more ideologically split than ever. Slowly, painfully, we're finally going to learn the truth about the fraudulence for which we voted. Sometimes knowledge has to be obtained empirically. It's going to hurt like hell, and the people who suffer the most are going to be the people who voted for it. My chief hope for the coming months and years is that mainstream media will finally be held to account.

Never give up, never give in. Not to the takers' agenda, nor to their baroque and embarrassing emotional excesses, intellectual bankruptcy and divisive impulses. Also, hate is for people you know and respect, not for Barack Obama.

"It's time to stop talking about the election and have our lives be about love and beauty." Love and beauty cost money and time. No, I'm not talking about the cost of cosmetic enhancement, time spent at the gym, or the price of a dinner date. I'm talking about individual security and autonomy. People don't make the leap without it, don't raise a family without it, don't feel motivated to produce or reproduce without it. Somebody's got to pay for these things, somebody's got to work for them, create the conditions necessary. Real world motivation for love and beauty is corroding away as the ever-expanding bureaucracy and its endless hunger for more money and more power saps individual security and autonomy. They want you to buy a cheap knock-off instead.

Americans claim to want more freedom, yet vote for crushing regulation, bigger government and more government programs.

Americans claim to want civility yet vote for a man who has no intention of working with anyone with opposing views, and views those who have done well in the private sector suspiciously, even contemptuously. They voted for a man who had ads featuring children making claims like "the seas will fill with oil" "and "they haven't killed all the polar bears yet, but not for lack of trying" and the elderly using profanity.

Americans claim to want truth, yet elected a man who lied about aid to blacks after Katrina, lied about Benghazi, lied about Fast and Furious, lied about sequestration, lied about the debt.

Obama is going to seek revenge on his enemies.

The press will not do it's job, as they failed on Benghazi, the debt, stimulus waste, Fast and Furious, etc., etc.

I think we are slipping into dangerous territory. Obama won't be held accountable, and I fear it is too late to stop some of his plans. The rich will be fine, but the rest of us will suffer, and the current gas, food and insurance prices as well as unemployment are all noting compared to what we will face in the future. Government will expand, America will contract.

At least if a Republican is in office, you are assured every move he or she makes will be scrutinized.

C'mon people. Just because Kubler-Ross says you have an anger stage doesn't mean you have to spend much time there. You are going to get to acceptance and move on at some point. Make a decision to step forward and take the beating in stride.

Anne doesn't control politics. We don't control out fellow citizens. We can only control our own reactions. Will it get bad? It might. Meanwhile, we have today. We have two years from now. We have four years from now. Unless you are gonna slit your wrists you are gonna just have to live your life under these circumstances anyway. Do you get paid extra for being miserable?

Take the day for anger and misery if you want. I'll wait for you at the other side in acceptance. It's much nicer here.

"Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine." ~Anthony J. D'Angelo

I agree. Stick a fork in them, they're done. I supported them for the past eight years, because I don't like how the Dems. encourage dependency on the govt. A lot of what Paglia had to say recently about the Dem party and how they ceded the freedom issue to the GOP resonated with me, but I wont rehash what she had to say. (Althouse had linked to it recently if anyone is interested. I can't be bothered to link it.)

The GOP have allowed themselves to become the bogey man for all the country's ills, by being weak-kneed when it comes to standing up to negative campaigning. As a result, their brand is permanently tarnished. If they can't or won't fight for what they claim to represent then they don't deserve my support; and they won't get it.

I live in MA; My votes for the GOP are as wasted as for a third party. We need a viable party that can actually win elections, to replace the GOP; one that focuses on freedom from an ever-expanding intrusive govt., one that encourages financial independence through policies that encourage entrepreneurs, and one that drops the losing social issues battles.

Maybe I'll give the Libertarians another look. Or maybe the Democrats can actually become what they claim to be, and start supporting the working and middle-class with policies that don't destroy them; instead of being the party of the elite and politically connected, that tosses crumbs to the peasants to buy their vote and their dependency. (I wont hold my breath...) Or maybe we are just doomed like every democracy once it realizes they can vote themselves free stuff.

My brother and sisters with kids, all of whom are struggling financially, voted for more of the same policies that will make the future harder for their children. All so that their daughters will have the "right" to abort their babies and get free birth control. That is what they say drove their vote- the woman's issues. Like I said before, the Dems. know their base. I tip my hat to them.

I just finished clearing 20 square yards of bamboo-infested space in the backyard. I'm readying it for the spring. Practically everything grows out here if you give it enough water and little fertilizer. I used to have a green thumb but haven't been serious about it in tears.

Loafing oaf wrote:For one example, when Republicans decided to be the party for those who dislike gay people, well that can only help you for the short term, because you're on the wrong side of history. Stuff like that is a big reason young people find the GOP un-cool. If you were really the party of Lincoln you wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of issues like that.

when did you become the party of hating traditional marriage and calling it bigoted? A lot of people you say dislike gay marriage were pro traditional marriage without any anti gay context long before you decided to call them bigots for it. As such you saying they became the party for those who dislike gay people is false. Rather I would say you are framing defending marriage as its always been defined as "hating gays". And republicans have become that party? until 3 months before the election that was Obama's position! It was Bill Clinton who gave us DOMA! those are both dems. And last I heard, the dems are a different party than repubs.

Why do you hate traditional marriage so,much as to call anyone who simply views it as its always been viewed as some hateful bigot, you bigot! And hypocrite too, since you attribute this hateful rhetoric to ONE party despite the guy who just wn the presidency holding the xact position you call hating gays only a few months prior.

Now it is true, that there are many evangelicals who don't approve of gay lifestyles. I wouldn't say they HATE gays, since they would say they love the sinner but hate the sin. And there are some who DO hate gays. There are peoplle in the world who hate other people, it's true.However, those people you call haters view traditional marriage As both a moral as well as practical makeup for a marriage they want to promote, and they've held this view for far longer than any of us have been alive. And far longer than there has been a call to change its definition.

You know who's going to be thinking a lot about love and beauty? All those students who can't find jobs since they aren't there.. And maybe playing with their xboexs, or twittering. All while their parents pay their rent.Maybe, althouse should have voted for Obama, just so we could have more people live the reflective life (since there's nothing else to do)

Jeffrey said..."By the way, back in the mid-80s, I worked at Bonanza Inn Bookshop on Market St. in San Francisco. I make around four to five dollars an hour. I used to soak my feet every night after work because I had to stand at the cash register all day. Lots of good times, but clearly I should have been a community organizer."

Jeffrey, when I was young, back in the early-80s, I started a business cultivating gardens for other people. Like you, I made around 4 to 5 dollars an hour and at the end of every day, I was tired and I had sore body parts. By the mid-80s, I hired my first two employees and paid them 10 dollars an hour plus benefits. 6 years later, when those 2 original employees moved on to other pursuits (they both ended up starting successful businesses of their own), my business was paying them over 20 dollars an hour plus benefits, I had a nearly quarter million dollar payroll to meet, and a 1 year-old daughter to do my best to cultivate into adulthood (my greatest accomplishment in life).

Thanks to many great employees, vendors, and clients (and an extraordinary CPA), the business thrived. I saved, invested, and lived within my means - getting "stuff", not by taking it from other people, but by paying for it with honestly-earned dollars. I paid my lawful taxes to many different government entities - lots and lots of taxes. Somehow, after 25 years, I had a valuable client list and some salable assets.

Hash out your class envy here or anywhere in any way you like, Jeffery. Like most people, I've had fortunes and misfortunes in life. If you feel I have somehow unfairly profited at your expense, I invite you to email me to discuss it in private. In my adult life, as far as I know, I've never taken unfair advantage of anyone. But if you feel I have somehow been unfair to you, I'll be eager to try to square things up.

If this were an election really about an assault on women's uteruses and althouse voted aainst Romney because of that would she still say the election was the election but she doesn't care about politics and now wants to think about love and beauty? Would Inga and Phy?It just goes to show that it wasn't really about that. If it were though I doubt althouse or Inga would just go back to thinking about beauty and art and saying they don't care about politics.Meaning, the reason that Althouse can do that is because she doesn't find things like the economy to be anything more than politics because it doesn't impact her life to any great degree. But if it did, would she still chalk it up to politics?Like, if this were about gay marriage and Romney was vowing to jail gays for engaging I sodomy, and he won would she say, I don't really care about politics.She's divorcing politics from the impact it has on people's actual lives.Economic policies are not just "politics" they are policies that playmoutmdaily in people's lives.

And maybe the GOP should get away from neo-cons and start attacking Obama on the kill lists and drones and warrantless wiretaps and all that.

and what if we think that's the one thing Obama's done right? I mean, if the kill list has Paul Ryan or mitt Romney on it, why then of course I'll stand against that. But if it has Osama bin Laden on it, why then strike that name off the list buddy.thats what war is all about.And at any rate, why should the GOP get away from that stuff. Obama sure didn't and it was barely even commented on by either the media or his supporters. It wasn't a losing issue at all. I do know that it would be a losing issue for repubs, but only because dems are comp,tee hypocrites. However, if repubs framed it as carrying out a continuation of Obamas terror policies, why then what are dems really going to say? That suddenly they are against kill lists? Obama has made it safe to be a neocon.

Stood in line for two hours to vote yesterday, watched some of the early returns, then turned off the TV and the internet devices.

Helped my daughter with her homework last night. Took her to her karate class. Fixed her dinner. Held her hand while we took the beagles for their evening walk and talked about her special needs' classmate with whom she's a "reading buddy". Stood watch outside the bathroom (she's afraid of the dark) while she took a bath. Read The Black Cauldron to her while she fell asleep. Watched some Tudors DVR'd episodes, then turned in myself. Got up this morning and started all over again.

also, you can have love and beauty even if you have to pay for your birth control.

As long as you raise the issue here's my thinking. I don't particularly have a problem under normal circumstances with saying we all have to make sacrifices and here's all the things we need to cut, and well, contraceptive care is on the list.

That's not how that was done though. Instead before virtually anyone else has to make a sacrifice, Republicans propose cutting contraceptives - something that's generally pretty important to many women.

Right, go after contraceptives which will save the equivalent of a drop of piss in the entire sewage system and then get all offended and self-righteous because women howl out loud about that.

The right has a bit of a tin ear for these things, and that's a good reason why they did so poorly with the women's vote yesterday.

That's how it goes. That's the problem with cutting anything because everything is now the most essential and important program there is!

Could you realistically take the budget back 5 years without starving millions?

I don't know, but that would never be tried because I cannot live without my PBS or my contraceptives or my hot breakfasts or my afterschool programs or my squirrel-research project or my cigarette debit cards or my job training programs or my blah blah blah ...

The GOP is defacto controlled by the Christian right. Therefore they will continue pushing their social/religious agenda and the voters will continue reducing their numbers until they are confined to the deep south and a few other enclaves. The GOP will be extinct by 2030.

Troofer Furious, how different you sound today than in the last few weeks, subdued, it suits you. A bit of defeat is good for the overly cocky, being brought down a few notches is good for some folks, makes them understand and appreciate the finer things in life, their kids, their dogs, their gardens.

"Never give up, never give in. Not to the takers' agenda, nor to their baroque and embarrassing emotional excesses, intellectual bankruptcy and divisive impulses."

The above quote says it all.. This election is as bad as it can be and anyhow I hate losing. But I know from being a prolifer that you can't burn up inside when you lose. If the country doesn't understand your cause, then you do have to turn to truth and beauty (or, to put it another way, to grace) to survive. To survive. As we said in the Sixties, "Lose your dreams and you will lose your mind / Ain't life unkind/" Or this: "Too much of nothing/ Can turn a man into a liar/ It can cause one man to sleep on nails/ And another man to eat fire." The Republican party needs work. Libertarians and those who hold traditional values have been tiptoeing around each other because the middle of an election is not the moment to thrash out differences when both think that government has overreached. We need a little more depth on the common values the two groups of Republicans hold. But the work that is needed to clarify the Republican platform 2016 is preferable to the non-work of being a blind follower of the Democratic party, a party which is completely committed to failing policies - some of which will fail in the next two years - referring here to financing social policies by debt as in California, Illinois and New York. Almost half the country understands these economic issues and these issues won't go away. Other issues are jobs, the schools and the collapse of the family - all issues of concern to the Tea Party and the value voters and all issues which are disproportionately impacting African-Americans and Hispanics.

phx said... but in fact Republicans did (and still do) propose such a policy in droves...with screaming banshee-like adamancy.

The only policy suggested on this topic was not requiring businesses cover birth control. So contra phx's bizarre insistence that this was something the Reps identified before anyone else was asked to sacrifice, it was a reaction to the Dems trying to pass legislation forcing people to offer what they had not been offering before.

No objection to pointing out that Romney and Ryan didn't support that idea, but in fact Republicans did (and still do) propose such a policy in droves...with screaming banshee-like adamancy.

The only links I could find (too numerous to post) all dealt with the objection to the contraception mandate in the ACA, not any stand-alone bills that attempted to "cut contraception coverage"from government provided healthcare.

I like how we've allowed men to pass the complete reproductive rights buck and burden on to women, as if we absolve ourselves of responsibility of the consequences of sex.

RE: the "what's wrong with women" line- On the east and west coast plenty of men voted for these "vagina" policies along with the women. My brother, and my sister's husband to name two I know personally, both said it was women's issues that drove their vote.

People in these liberal enclaves would vote for a Nazi before they will vote for a Republican. "Republican" is a swear word to them. They want to believe whatever awful stuff the media-- and this includes the internet , facebook, twitter, the Daily Show, SNL - says about Republicans. War on women, war on Big Bird, war on kittens (Ok, I made that one up)-- it doesn't matter how absurd. They will eat it up. It makes them feel good about themselves. There is no escaping that.

Like I said the brand is ruined in these areas, probably irreversibly so. If I were a Republican politician in a blue state, I would switch to the Dem party, because I would be assured that I could commit murder and still get re-elected against a Republican opponent.

"People in these liberal enclaves would vote for a Nazi before they will vote for a Republican. "Republican" is a swear word to them. They want to believe whatever awful stuff the media...says about Republicans. War on women, war on Big Bird, war on kittens (Ok, I made that one up)-- it doesn't matter how absurd. They will eat it up. It makes them feel good about themselves. There is no escaping that."

But they don't feel good. They come here and hate conservatives even after they win because conservatives here express a different point of view. That's not even rational. Gloating is one thing, but why the anger?

"You may not be interested in troubles, but troubles are interested in you."

They're certainly interested in Greece, the country we're trying to emulate.

Amid some of the most violent demonstrations in Greece in months, the Parliament approved a sweeping set of austerity measures early Thursday that were aimed at keeping the country in the euro zone...

The measures, which include sharp cuts to pensions, salaries and social services, as well as tax increases and raising the retirement age to 67 from 65 — is expected, but not guaranteed, to persuade Greece’s foreign creditors to unlock 31 billion euros in aid the country needs to meet expenses.

In presenting the austerity measures, which total 17 billion euros, to Parliament, Mr. Samaras acknowledged that the new cuts to pensions and salaries were “unfair,” but added that Greece was bound by the terms of its agreement with creditors.

“A lot of what we’re voting on today are measures we should have taken a long time ago,” he said, adding that they would be “the last, the last” such cuts. Future “adjustments,” he said, would come from a crackdown on tax evasion and public sector waste.

Stella Dimitrakopolou, a 29-year-old graphic designer who donned a surgical mask to ward off tear gas in Wednesday’s demonstration, agreed.

“These measures are inhumane,” she said. “The young generation has no future, and older people have no money and the measures do not help society economically.”

People are spoken to disrespectfully all the time. Being part of this forum is an invitation for people to express their opinions. It's often done disrespectfully because it's anonymous. I sometimes comment on HuffPo and the disrespect there is off the charts worse than anything here.

I went for a 3 hour bike ride today, most of it going through woods. Very pretty, great weather, great for thinking things through.

The election was quite close. Romney did not get as many votes as McCain, I'm guessing that the religious right wing did not turn out is the main reason why.

The right has to radically improve at the business of politics. Influencing the culture has to be a permanent process. The idea that you persuade people by drowning them in commercials right before an election is stupid.

The right has to produce the TV shows, movies, web sites, music and other media to influence the culture on a perpetual, pervasive basis. Our culture is totally screwed up and won't be turned around rapidly so it is time to get started.

The right has to realize that stupid or emotional or one issue voters' votes count just as much as the vote of a smart person. Rather than expect that everybody understand sophisticated economic arguments (for example), specific arguments have to be constructed that are tailored to the limitations of specific groups of voters. One size does not fit all.

The right has to attack the institutions of the left. For example, education from K through Phd is vulnerable to creative destruction because it is inefficient, performing poorly, and could be radically improved and made muuuch less expensive through use of computers to replace teachers. Lefty academics and teachers losing their jobs in huge numbers will hurt the left, both economically and by reducing their ability to force feed lefty propaganda to our kids. The right has to realize that we are in a war for the future of America. We have to do whatever it takes to win.

As the founder of the GOP said:

"Our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure."

The task of the right is to guarantee that America "shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

For conservatives, the point of this political civil war is to preserve liberty by forcing our government to obey the constitution.

Adding a trillion bucks per year to the national debt guarantees that, sooner rather than later, our creditors will realize that the USA will never repay that debt or will repay that debt in depreciated dollars. Not long after that the dollar will cease to be the reserve currency of the world. Not long after that, the USA will plunge into a full fledged depression that will be very difficult to overcome.

America gets tremendous benefit from the dollar being the reserve currency for the world. Losing that status will be a huge, permanent blow to our economy and standard of living.

Jeffrey -- I think most people on this blog don't care about Meadehouse's finances and their choices. We like Meade and the Prof.

It would appear that the commenters here represent a very wide range of incomes and lifestyles. Nice.

We make choices along the way (speaking from the older end of the continuum) and it's a shoulder shrug. Our family has wealthy realtives and not. We are the not. We don't care. They don't seem to notice or care. We get mutually blessed and entertained by each others' being and persons.

Beauty and love transcends stuff. And 'poor' people can appreciate and enjoy. So why the knock?

If someone uses their material blessings (and achievement) to choose to live with beautiful stuff. So what?

(As a silly aside I loved the Professor's red shoes from a few years back. Would never pay what she paid, but hey, they were cute and if I saw some like them that fit in my budget ... it was a go!)

As for important things in life... are we counting down how long it will take for Tehran to finish developing and give their new bomb to their shi'ite friends and relatives, and how long it will take for Israel to pre-emptively defend herself?

Romney could have had Condaleezza's speech in sound bites to remind us it's more than just a Fiscal Cliff.